CONTENTS CONQUESTS of Justinian in the West-Character and first cam- paigns of Belisarius He invades and subdues the Vandal kingdom of Africa-His triumph-The Gothic war-He re- covers Sicily, Naples, and Rome Siege of Rome by the Goths State of the barbaric world-Establishment of the Lombards on the Danube-Tribes and inroads of the Sclavonians-Origin, empire, and embassies of the Turks-The flight of the Avars -Chosroes I. or Nushirvan, king of Persia-His prosperous CHAPTER XLIII. Reign of the younger Justin-Embassy of the Avars-Their set- Revolutions of Persia after the death of Chosroes or Nushirvan -His son Hormouz, a tyrant, is deposed-Usurpation of Bahram Flight and restoration of Chosroes II.-His grati- tude to the Romans-The chagan of the Avars-Revolt of the army against Maurice-His death-Tyranny of Phocas-Ele- vation of Heraclius-The Persian war-Chosroes subdues Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor-Siege of Constantinople by the Per- THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER XLI. Conquests of Justinian in the West-Character and first campaigns of Belisarius-He invades and subdues the Vandal kingdom of Africa-His triumph-The Gothic war- He recovers Sicily, Naples, and Rome-Siege of Rome by the GothsTheir retreat and losses-Surrender of Ravenna --Glory of Belisarius-His domestic shame and misfortunes. WHEN Justinian ascended the throne, about fifty years after the fall of the western empire, the kingdoms of the Goths and Vandals had obtained a solid, and, as it might seem, a legal establishment both in Europe and Africa. The titles which Roman victory had inscribed were erazed with equal justice by the sword of the barbarians; and their successful rapine derived a more venerable sanction from time, from treaties, and from the oaths of fidelity, already repeated by a second or third generation of obedient subjects. Experience and Christianity had refuted VOL. VII. B the superstitious hope, that Rome was founded by the gods to reign for ever over the nations of the earth. But the proud claim of perpetual and indefeasible dominion, which her soldiers could no longer maintain, was firmly asserted by her statesmen and lawyers, whose opinions have been sometimes revived and propagated in the modern schools of jurisprudence. After Rome herself had been stripped of the imperial purple, the princes of Constantinople assumed the sole and sacred sceptre of the monarchy; demanded, as their rightful inheritance, the provinces which had been subdued by the consuls or possessed by the Cæsars; and feebly aspired to deliver their faithful subjects of the West from the usurpation of heretics and barbarians. The execution of this splendid design was in some degree reserved for Justinian. During the five first years of his reign, he reluctantly waged a costly and unprofitable war against the Persians; till his pride submitted to his ambition, and he purchased, at the price of four hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling, the benefit of a precarious truce, which, in the language of both nations, was dignified with the appellation of the endless peace. The safety of the East enabled the emperor to employ his forces against the Vandals; and the internal state of Africa afforded an honourable motive, and promised a powerful support, to the Roman arms*. According to the testament of the founder, the African kingdom had lineally descended to Hilderic * The complete series of the Vandal war is related by Procopius in a regular and elegant narrative (1. i. c. 9—25; 1. ii. c. 1—13); and happy would be my lot, could I always tread in the footsteps of such a guide. From the entire and diligent perusal of the Greek text, I have a right to pronounce that the Latin and French versions of Grotius and Cousin may not be implicitly trusted: yet the president Cousin has been often praised, and Hugo Grotius was the first scholar of a learned age. the eldest of the Vandal princes. A mild disposition inclined the son of a tyrant, the grandson of a conqueror, to prefer the counsels of clemency and peace; and his accession was marked by the salutary edict, which restored two hundred bishops to their churches, and allowed the free profession of the Athanasian creed *. But the catholics accepted, with cold and transient gratitude, a favour so inadequate to their pretensions, and the virtues of Hilderic offended the prejudices of his countrymen. The Arian clergy presumed to insinuate that he had renounced the faith, and the soldiers more loudly complained that he had degenerated from the courage, of his ancestors.-His ambassadors were suspected of a secret and disgraceful negotiation in the Byzantine court; and his general, the Achilles†, he was named, of the Vandals, lost a battle against the naked and disorderly Moors. The public discontent was exasperated by Gelimer, whose age, descent, and military fame, gave him an apparent title to the succession: he assumed, with the consent of the nation, the reins of government; and his unfortunate sovereign sunk without a struggle from the throne to a dungeon, where he was strictly guarded with a faithful counsellor, and his unpopular nephew the Achilles of the Vandals. But the indulgence which Hilderic had shewn to his as * See Ruinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal. c. xii. p. 589. His best evidence is drawn from the life of St. Fulgentius, composed by one of his disciples, transcribed in a great measure in the annals of Baronius, and printed in several great collections (Catalog. Bibliot. Bunnavianæ, tom. i. vol. ii. p. 1258.) + For what quality of the mind or body? For speed, or beauty, or valour? In what language did the Vandals read Homer?-Did he speak German?-The Latins had four versions (Fabric. tom. 1. 1. ii. c. 3. p. 297): yet in spite of the praises of Seneca (Consol. c. 26) they appear to have been more successful in imitating, than in translating, the Greek poets. But the name of Achilles might be famous and popular, even among the illiterate barbarians. |